Far side of Moon had volcanic eruptions billions of years ago: Study

According to recent study, billions of years ago, volcanoes were erupting on the moon's enigmatic far side, just like on the visible side.

New study indicates that volcanoes erupted on the moon's mysterious far side billions of years ago, just as they do on the visible side.

Researchers examined lunar soil carried back by China's Chang'e-6, the first spacecraft to return with boulders and dirt from Moon's little-explored far side.

Researchers examined lunar soil carried back by China's Chang'e-6, the first spacecraft to return with boulders and dirt from the little-explored far side.

Two different teams discovered volcanic rock pieces that were approximately 2.8 billion years old. One fragment was much older, reaching back to 4.2 billion years.

“To obtain a sample from this area is really important because it's an area that otherwise we have no data for,” said Christopher Hamilton, a planetary volcano expert at the University of Arizona who was not involved with the research.

The near side of the moon, which is visible from Earth, has active volcanoes that date back to a comparable period of time, according to scientists. Data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and other earlier research indicated that the far side could possibly have a volcanic past. The first samples from that area that face away from Earth support the existence of an active past.

The findings appeared in the journals Science and Nature on Friday.

Numerous spacecraft have been sent to the moon by China. Moon rocks gathered by NASA's Apollo astronauts and Soviet spacecraft in the 1970s were the first to be returned from the near side by the Chang'e-5 mission in 2020. In 2019, the Chang'e-4 spacecraft made history by being the first to explore the far side of the moon.

There are fewer of the flat, black plains sculpted by lava flows on the moon's far side, which is pocked by craters. According to Qiu-Li Li, a co-author of the study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it is still unclear why the two parts differ so much.

Li said the new findings reveal over 1 billion years of volcanic eruptions on the lunar far side. Future research will determine how the activity lasted so long.

With inputs from AP